Bed One:
A single tomato plant which will, as they are wont to do in California, take over the world.
Volunteer red potatoes. Volunteer parsley. Volunteer garlic. Hey, never look a gift horse in the mouth. If something volunteers it gets to live. Unless it’s mint or oregano. Mint and oregano do not respect boundaries. Kind of like Russia.
Arugula.
Purple beans.
Cylindrical beets. You know, the long kind, not the round kind.
Bed Two:
Two asparagus patches which have been producing for two weeks. Yay and Yum!
1 mound of pickling cucumbers.
1 mound of mixed summer squash.
Japanese white turnips.
French breakfast radishes.
Four varieties of lettuce.
Arugula.
Saving room for eggplant and chilies.
Bed Three:
Tons of volunteer French fingerling potatoes. Couldn’t get all the tiny ones when I harvested last fall. They get to stay… For now.
Volunteer peas and carrots. Who can say no to peas and carrots?
More purple beans.
More Japanese white turnips.
We bought some new planters for more lettuce, herbs and flowers, some edible. As soon as I can really walk I’ll put a bunch of flower pots around the yard.
I love gardening. The raised beds and the way we prepped the soil over the winter made it possible for me to work without putting any strain on my knee. It was sweet. Plus Jake helped. And then I elevated my leg and iced for a couple hours.
As soon as things start sprouting I’ll post pics. Not my leg, the garden.
Big news! Actually put on a pair of jeans today.
My sister had an operation. The doctor told her she could go shopping BUT she couldn’t carry anything heavier than a credit card. She went shopping. Three times so far - and the operation hasn’t been over for a week yet.
You have a leg you can’t even walk on - so what do you do when you’re bored? Garden, of course.
If it were just putting in one thing… But no, it is starting a Victory Garden for the neighborhood.
I’m envious - we can’t eat our perennials. We do have flowers all spring and summer. Good enough.
Wow!!! Nice spread you have there. The only thing I can grow is old. Glad it looks like your knee is on the mend. I’m sure Jake will be as happy as you when you’re better. And blue jeans……..baby steps Julia.
Yes, Ray. Baby steps. Going to get more ice shortly. We have an interesting yard. It’s very functional for being relatively small - basketball court/RV parking, fenced off garden area with 3 large beds and 2 fruit trees, large deck, redwoods behind a rock wall, grass area, plantings and pathways. It’s an unusual space. We have 2 little fig trees, a quince, an apple and a cherry, plus 7 redwoods, a fruitless pear, a Japanese maple and four other trees whose names always escape me. Oh, almost forgot the roofed dog run which we use to store wood for our wood stove. It always amazes me- reminds me of a clown car. We fit a lot of stuff in it.
And Ray, you ain’t old.
Shopping is very challenging, Alicia. Grocery shopping is my arch nemesis. Clothes shopping would be maybe last on my list of things to do. Can’t wait until it gets easier. Well, I got my garden in late last year. Even now I missed garlic season! I was determined to get it in on time this year. The nursery didn’t have chilies and eggplant in yet - Oscar carried everything for me, of course.
Interesting indeed.
Wow…that’s a lot of gardening for someone who should be resting.
I am so jealous! Your garden is going to be fantastic. Sending happy healing thoughts to your knee.
Feel better!
Hate you ……
but of course you know I don’t, just so jealous that even as a lousy cripple you are so much better at these things than I am xxxxxxxx
Do the potatoes revert to non-hybrid? I have grown potatoes before and it is amazing how the darn beetles find them where they have never been grown before.
No Steph. They stay what they are. At least so far. We don’t have potato beetles. Now I have to look them up.
Well Tom, all hate aside, you can move to California and live with us. We’d drive you nuts though.
Thanks Penny. I apologize for all your snow…
Yeah. I’m mostly resting, Amber. Bored!!!
The Arugula seems to be the “bed” hopper, but at least it showed some restraint and refrained from bed 3!
You’re doing so well, Julia! My mother did traditional gardening for years, but then during her last dozen years or so of gardening she did the raised beds. Really raised and really productive, but I don’t remember any of them high enough for your wounded knee to handle without any problems. Jake, on the other hand…
Oh, so glad that you’re mending. And how impressive, that you’ve planted your garden already. My problem is that I don’t know what’s a volunteer plant or a weed. It’s hard to tell. I have to get out there with a fork, but am afraid that I’ll disturb any volunteers, which I might want to nurture. Do you have any secrets as to how you identify a weed? Some I recognize and one rule of thumb ( a gardener’s, of course) is that if you can pull it out easily, it’s probably not a weed.
Arugula does tend to do that, Marylin, but I managed it last year. Mint is the worst! I had raised beds built two years ago. The soil here gets too compacted over the winter and trying to til it up was backbreaking! I have really high beds. Could stand on one foot and reach everything.
Yes, Diana, I am mending. No more crutches. If I need to go out I have a cane. Which is really funny. I’m hopeless with a cane. I guess I recognize my volunteers because I’ve been doing this so long. If I’m not sure what something is I’ll wait a couple weeks. By then I can usually identify it as a good plant or an interloper.
All those veggies are making my mouth water.
Woo Hoo on the jeans!
Sandra -